ChatGPT now allows users to turn off chat history but there's a catch

John had always been cautious with his online privacy, especially when it came to communication. He considered messaging apps that stored chat history as big red flags.

One day, while scrolling through his social media, he stumbled upon an article that piqued his interest. It announced that ChatGPT, a popular chat platform, would now allow users to turn off chat history. John was overjoyed! Finally, he could communicate with his friends without worrying about his chat logs being saved somewhere.

However, his joy quickly turned to confusion as he read the fine print. The setting would only work for conversations with non-ChatGPT users. Talking to fellow ChatGPT users would still be recorded and saved. John felt cheated.

The ChatGPT developers were aware of the confusion their users might face. They cited security reasons as the main reason for retaining chat logs between ChatGPT users. They also gave some concrete examples to ease the users' confusion:

• ChatGPT would be able to warn users if they were being harassed or threatened by someone they had previously spoken to.
• If law enforcement had a court order, they could access chat logs for investigatory purposes.
• If a user forgot their password, they could verify their identity by supplying chat log data.

The ChatGPT team also reassured their users that chat logs would never be shared with third-party companies for any purpose, including targeted advertising. The setting to turn off non-ChatGPT conversation logs would still be a valuable privacy feature for users who frequently chat with non-ChapGPT users.

To conclude, the ChatGPT feature to turn off chat history with non-ChatGPT users is not an absolute privacy solution but still a step in the right direction. The developers' explanation and reasoning should reassure users that their privacy is being considered. John finally decided to give the platform a chance and continued using it.

• The new setting only applies to non-ChatGPT users.
• Chat logs are retained for security reasons.
• The setting is still useful for users who frequently chat with non-ChatGPT users.